Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Admiral James Ellis Jr., speaks to reporters at Offutt Air Force Base Thursday.

By Joe Ruff
The Associated Press

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE -- The nation's nuclear command center is
broadening its mission in the face of terrorism and other threats, the
commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Thursday.

Intelligence gathering and communications are vital aspects to fighting
threats against the United States that have multiplied since the Cold
War ended against the Soviet Union, Naval Admiral James O. Ellis Jr.
said.

Information used to help deter threats, together with advanced
conventional weapons like precision bombing, will reduce the need to
use the nation's ultimate threat -- launching a nuclear strike, Ellis
said at a news conference.

"There's a growing realization that you can have a strategic impact or
a strategic effect without necessarily deploying a nuclear weapon,"
Ellis said.

Stratcom, which puts the nation's air, sea and land-based nuclear
weapons under one command, will participate as all branches of the
military develop non-nuclear deterrents to violence, Ellis said.

One context of that effort is the war against terrorism, Ellis said.

The concepts that served the United States well in the bipolar
environment of the Cold War may not work for today's wider range of
threats, Ellis said.

"For example," Ellis said, "those that we saw so horribly demonstrated on the 11th of September. How do you deter that?"

Experts at Stratcom have helped in the global war against terrorism,
Ellis said. That includes providing specialists on Afghanistan's caves
and mountains, who helped military forces pin down and rout Taliban and
Al-Qaida forces.

Stratcom's historic role in deterring nuclear war with Russia merged
dramatically with its developing broader duties of intelligence and
communications on Sept. 11, the day terrorists struck the World Trade
Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

The steel and concrete reinforced command center 60 feet under the
base, built in the height of the Cold War, was staffed with top
personnel as Stratcom conducted a global readiness exercise with all
U.S. strategic forces.

Then two hijacked commercial airlines hit the Trade Center in New York, a third hit the Pentagon, and the alert became real.